By Alex Frazier
Dana Feiss chose the road less traveled.
The 2008 Souderton alum was the best hurdler on the track team as a junior.
But she gave that up to pursue a newfound love for track cycling.
Feiss started running track in seventh grade on the recommendation from her parents. It turned out to be a good choice.
“I was always a really active kid,” she said. “I started running and I really liked it. It’s a very straightforward sport - you and the times you can run. There are no other things involved like hitting a ball or catching or throwing.”
When she was 14, a family friend who had been a track racer at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in the early 90s, suggested she attend an introductory clinic at the track. Feiss had been doing some road cycling with her parents and decided to give it a try.
Unlike in road racing, track bicycles have only a single gear and no brakes. That in itself is a big adjustment.
Nevertheless, she took to the track quickly, although there was a problem of transportation. The velodrome was 45 minutes away and she didn’t drive, so track cycling was placed on hold.
When she turned 16 and got her license, Feiss returned to the track for another program. There, she drew the attention of Nay Britt Hartwell, a former Norwegian world champion and Olympian, who recognized her potential. She told Feiss she should try racing, which she did the latter half of her first year.
“I was decent for my first half season,” she said.
The next year she joined the junior team.
“We had real uniforms and a team to work for,” she said. “That was a big transition. It was my first year competing at the national level.”
She was pretty successful, too, garnering a pair of silver and bronze medals at Junior Nationals.
So, from being a spectator of races, like the prestigious Univest Grand Prix that went by her home in Souderton, she was all of a sudden a racer herself.
For Feiss, cycling offered a dimension that running didn’t.
“There’s a lot more tactics involved,” she said. “It’s not like lining up in a lane and waiting for the gun and go. There’s a lot of finesse and kinetic awareness. It’s more of a thinking sport. You have to think, where am I in the field? Do I have teammates around that I can help or be helped by? There is some team stuff involved.”
A sprinter by nature, Feiss focuses on three principal events—the keiran, the match sprint and the 500-meter race.
The keiran is a six-lap race. The riders follow a motorcycle for four laps, as the speed picks up and the riders jockey for position. When the cycle pulls off, it’s a sprint to the finish.
“It’s very physical, bumps and elbows,” she said. “It can get rough. It’s fast, physical and a very tactical race.”
The match sprint starts as a time trial. Then the fastest qualifier from the time trial will sprint against the slowest qualifier for two laps. The first lap is usually very slow as the two riders try to set up for the best position to sprint the final one.
“Tactics come into play on the first lap,” said Feiss. “The second is all about speed.”
The 500 is basically just an individual time trial - go as fast as you can and the best time wins.
This year, because of her age, she has moved up to the “big dogs,” as she refers to them. Friday night is a big night at Lehigh Valley and she was in the limelight.
“It was a big step up (racing the pros),” she said. “We were getting people from, Australia, Germany and Argentina.”
And she held her own, often finishing near the top of the pack.
In one sprint tournament mid-season, she finished second to the Australian National Champion.
“It was a big turning point,” she said.
Feiss has qualified for Elite Nationals in Los Angeles for the second time this year. Last year she decided not to go in favor of gaining more experience. This year she will compete in October.
She’s hoping to do well enough there to make it to the national talent pool and hopefully be called up for some internationals competitions.
“That will be the big thing for me the next few years is to get more international exposure,” she said. “It will be good to experience different tracks, different racers.”
Before that, however, she’s off to Kutztown University, which just so happens to be about 10 minutes away from the Lehigh Valley Velodrome.
She didn’t have many options about attending a college that actually had a track cycling team. There are a few in the west, but she didn’t want to go that far away.
When she visited Kutztown, she fell in love with the school, apart from the fact that it was so close to the velodrome.
“The track definitely drew me to the area,” she said.
After attending a couple of open houses, she was sold.
“I just really, really liked the school, the staff,” she said. “And I found the major that really clicked with me.”
She plans to major in English/professional writing.
Ultimately, Feiss has her sights set on the 2012 Olympics in London. It’s a lofty goal and every athlete’s ultimate dream.
“I’ve got four years to race and train until the next Olympics,” she said.
Feiss may have chosen the road less traveled, but it has made all the difference.
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